ArticleJournal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open2024
Thoracic ultrasound may improve paramedic diagnostic and management accuracy in undifferentiated respiratory distress.
Article in Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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3 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- Observational
- Paramedic assessment of carotid artery pulsation using pre-recorded ultrasound videos: a comparative analysis of three ultrasound modes.Resuscitation plus · 2025Article
- Thoracic ultrasound may improve paramedic diagnostic and management accuracy in undifferentiated respiratory distress.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objectives: Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and congestive heart failure (CHF) exacerbations present with similar history and physical examination findings. This complicates both the diagnostic process and the creation of appropriate treatment plans for patients presenting in respiratory distress, particularly in the prehospital setting. Thoracic point-of-care-ultrasound (POCUS) may increase diagnostic accuracy; however, its potential to improve patient management by emergency medical services clinicians is unknown. We aimed to determine whether a brief thoracic POCUS educational intervention would improve prehospital diagnostic accuracy and treatment plans for patients with COPD and CHF exacerbations. Methods: In this prospective pre-/post-study, paramedics completed a thoracic POCUS training program. The pre-test presented history and physical examination data for 10 patients and asked paramedics to diagnose each patient with COPD or CHF exacerbation and to select the appropriate treatment(s). The post-test asked paramedics to interpret ultrasound images in addition to selecting diagnosis and treatment(s). Pre-post differences in average cumulative diagnostic and management accuracy were analyzed using paired two-tailed Results: Thirty-three paramedics participated in the study. At baseline, paramedics selected the accurate patient diagnosis and treatment(s) 73% and 60% of the time, respectively. On the post-test, diagnostic accuracy improved by 17% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 11-24, Conclusion: Effective training of paramedics to recognize the clinical scenario of undifferentiated respiratory distress and their associated thoracic ultrasound images may lead to improved treatment plans.
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